Forks dominates regional tournament

By Pierre LaBossiere

Olympic Peninsula News Group

ADNA — The Forks boys wrestling team dominated regionals, winning the team championship by a huge margin, while East Jefferson got a pair of great performances, including an individual regional championship, and Port Angeles will be sending a total of eight boys and girls to the Mat Classic.

A total of 24 wrestlers from the North Olympic Peninsula qualified for the Mat Classic next weekend, either as competitors or as alternates. Forks had the biggest day, with 11 wrestlers — 10 boys and a girl — making state.

Forks dominated the Region 1 1B/2B meet in Adna with 215.5 team points, beating second-place Kalama (125.0) by nearly 100 points. Forks had four individual regional champions, three second-place finishes and three third-place finishes.

Winning regional championships were Conner Demorest at 120 pounds, Jake Weakley at 145 pounds (with three straight pins), Hayden Queen at 182 pounds (with three straight pins, including a pin in 28 seconds) and Sloan Tumaua at 220 pounds.

Making it to their regional championship matches and finishing second were Dalton Kilmer at 126 pounds, who lost his championship match in a close 6-3 decision to Noah Cormier Higgins of Muckleshoot. Walker Wheeler finished second at 138 pounds and Nate Dahlgren came in second at 170, losing his championship match in an 8-4 decision to Damian Soto of Toledo.

Three Spartans finished third — Abraham Montealegre at 106 pounds, Jesus Garcia-Dominguez at 113 pounds and Walker Rondeau at 132 pounds.

Joining the boys will be Forks’ Peyton Johnson, who went 4-1 on the day at 110 pounds to finish third in the girls’ regional in Aberdeen.

Other Forks wrestlers who placed include Kaleb Blanton, who came in fifth at 145 pounds, and Jon Parker Jr., who was sixth at 170 pounds.

State qualifiers from the Top to the bottom and left to right: Hayden Queen, Dalton Kilmer, Sloan Tumaua, Jesus Garcia Dominquez, Walker Rondeau, Abraham Montealegre, Nate Dahlgren, Jake Weakley, Conner Demorest, Walker Wheeler.